The making of the Ctrl+O opener
Opening up the process.
Getting control over proportions, typefaces, scale.
Making a blueprint of the graphics placement.
Checking out metal finishing options.
The color coat is not consistent, need to run another test.
More tests later and the opening gets modification to work more smoothly.
Another sample with defective color application.
It also does not match the drawing.
Collecting all the prototypes and test results to choose the right way to go.
One of the production samples.
Creating the packaging.
First sketches.
Art director: Nice concepts. Let's get the one with a window as a starting point. See the attachment.
Art director: You can paint the caps in different colors and use drinks for file names: coke, beer, milk, lemonade, sparkling water, and punch.
By the way, we need all this in English.
Designer: To support the hot keys idea we can use a pop-up hints.
Art director: The colors scream “made in China.” Let's stick to the black version and put all caps against a carbon backdrop.
The opener itself is going to be physically placed against this backing, so the proportions are crucial.
Designer: We can die-cut an opening for the product on the front side of its packaging.
Art director: We could. But so far it does not resemble a packaging.
Designer: The backing is made of dense vulcanized fiber, something like a touch cover. Fix the opener inside with a black or clear string. The outline of a bottle with a launched cap can be varnished.
Designer: I've changed the caps to actual size of 32 mm (1.25″). And I suggest to leave them outlined like that to avoid competition with the product itself.
Art director: I'm not sure it's possible to varnish the precise contour of a bottle, so it's better to leave it alone, without any overlapping.
The word “bottle” is not very legible because of the cap shape on top. We need our barcode logo outlined on top of the regular barcode on the back. I do not like the logo and URL placement. I'd also round the corners. Everything else is good.
Art director: The typeface does not really work. Pick a different one and try it in varnish. The title should be spelled out “Control-O” and should be set in the right order “Opener Control-O.” Same thing for the English version.
Art director: Words “cocktail” and “lemonade” clash because of the same angle, not good.
Art director: 1 is better. I thought, we do not communicate the main point. Put some light color under the O-opening to make it pronounced.
Art director: Let's take the second one and try sans serif for the front. Trade “Lemonade” for a “Soft drink.” Move text in Russian to the bottom, for the one in English switch the lines and move it to the top.
Designer: Sans serif for the whole facade or just caps captions?
Art director: For everything. Last correction for the text in Russian is a plus sign in «Контрол+О».
Art director: Off to printing it goes.
Printing layer by layer chart for the production staff.
Sample of the varnish printing and the base material. We don't like it. Making the varnished graphics bleed.
Now it's much better and all the bottlenecks successfully avoided.
